Combinatorial RNA interference in Caenorhabditis elegans reveals that redundancy between gene duplicates can be maintained for more than 80 million years of evolution

Table 3 Genetic interactions of synthetic multivulval genes can be recapitulated by combinatorial RNAi

SynMuv gene	Predicted gene	Locus	SynMuv pathway	Wild-type	rrf-3
lin-15B	T27C4.4	egr-1	A	-	-
	ZK678.1	lin-15A	A	Muv	Muv
	K12C11.2	smo-1	A, B	ns	ns
	W02A11.4	uba-2	A, B	Muv	Muv
lin-15A	K12C11.2	smo-1	A, B	ns	ns
	W02A11.4	uba-2	A, B	-	Muv
	C32F10.2	lin-35	B	Muv	Muv
	C47D12.1	trr-1	B	ns	ns
	C53A5.3	hda-1/gon-10	B	ns	ns
	E01A2.4		B	-	-
	F44B9.6	lin-36	B	-	Muv
	JC8.6		B	ns	ns
	K07A1.12	lin-53/rba-2	B	ns	ns
	M04B2.1	mep-1/gei-2	B	-	Muv
	R05D3.11	met-2	B	-	Muv
	R06C7.7	rls-1/lin-61	B	Muv	Muv
	W01G7.3		B	ns	ns
	W07B3.2	gei-4	B	ns	ns
	Y71G12B.9		B	-	Muv
	Y1O2A5C.18	efl-1	B	Muv	Muv
	ZK632.13	lin-52	B	Muv	Muv
	ZK637.7	lin-9	B	Muv	Muv
	ZK662.4	lin-15B	B	Muv	Muv

Previously studied synthetic multivulval (synMuv) genes were targeted by combinatorial RNA interference (RNAi) in wild-type or RNAi-hypersensitive rrf-3 worms [19]. We show predicted gene name, its corresponding genetic locus name, a definition of the gene as a component of either the synMuv A (A), synMuv B (B), or both (A, B) pathways. All synMuv A genes were targeted by RNAi in combination with a double-stranded (ds)RNA-expressing strain targeting the synMuv B gene lin-15B; corresponding experiments were performed with synMuv B genes and a dsRNA-expressing strain targeting lin-15A. In both cases, worms were scored for the presence of the multivulva (Muv) phenotype. -, absence of Muv phenotype; ns, not scored (RNAi resulted in embryonic lethality or sterility).

ISSN: 1474-760X